The present invention relates to a tool for use in the electrical trades and more specifically to a sheathing slitter and sheathing cutter tool for use in preparing non-metallic sheathed cables for wiring operations.
Non-metallic sheathed cables are widely used in the wiring of homes, commercial buildings and in other applications. Typically, such cables include metallic conductors or wires that have an insulating cover. The insulating cover prevents the wires from short-circuiting within the cable to each other or to a ground wire which may or may not be insulated. A number of insulated wires and a ground wire are typically surrounded by a non-metallic sheathing to create the non-metallic sheathed cable. As used herein, the term non-metallic sheathed cable is used to refer to any electrical cable that has insulated conductors contained within a sheath that is not made of metal. The sheath may be made of plastic, rubber, or any other non-metallic material.
In the wiring of homes and offices, non-metallic sheathed cables are typically strung between electrical boxes, between boxes and an appliance, or between other points or devices requiring electrical connection interconnection. After the stringing of the cables, the non-metallic sheathing is slit, and the slit portion of the sheathing is cut off. The slitting of the sheathing is often performed using a utility knife or a commercially available tool designed for the slitting of a particular cable size. The use of a utility knife can readily lead to injury if the knife slips during the cutting operation. One known commercially available tool is awkward to use and is not adapted to the slitting of non-metallic cables of disparate sizes. Additionally, this tool does not include a blade for cutting off the slit sheathing, so a separate tool is required to perform this operation. Finally, this tool includes a knife blade that may slice the insulating covering on the wires within the cable during the slitting of the sheathing and lead to short-circuiting of the wires within the cable.
It would therefore be desirable to have a sheathing slitting tool that could slit non-metallic cables with relative ease and additionally, could be employed to slit non-metallic cables of disparate size. Additionally, it would be desirable for such a tool to include a sheathing cutter to avoid the need to employ a separate tool for the cutting of the slit sheathing after the slitting process.